The rise of an authoritarian populist politics, which presents itself as against the “Establishment,”” for the “common” people and “anti-globalisation,” is happening worldwide — and there are dangerous signs in South Africa. The populist upsurge sees voters reject big, established parties that embraced neo-liberalism after the economic crisis of 2007, in the context of a retreating working class and left. The author argues that the solution is to build from below for a new society beyond the state, class rule and capitalism based on self-management and production for need. read full story / add a comment

The Americas Coordinator held a virtual talk on May 9 on the current situation in America, particularly in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and the United States from a libertarian socialist perspective. During the discussion, the different analyses and future projections that each organization builds on this moment of world economic crisis were expressed. The Covid-19 pandemic deepened the miseries generated by this capitalist system in all territories. read full story / add a comment

A member of the Anarchist Federation Rio de Janeiro tells about the developments and incidents in Latin America over the last 30 years. To be discussed are the "socialism of the 21st century", the renewed rise of neoliberalism, the current wave of uprisings in the region and an outlook into the future. read full story / add a comment

The crisis of the statist politics that dominated working-class politics -- social democracy, Marxism-Leninism, and anti-imperialist nationalism -- and the rise of neoliberalism, has aided the rediscovery of society-centred, anti-capitalist forms of bottom-up change “at a distance” from the state. This article critically assess the three main modes of “at a distance” politics: “outside-but-with” the state, which combines using the state with popular movements; “outside-and-despite” the state, aiming at disintegrating the system by building alternatives in its cracks; and “outside-and-against” the state, associated with anarchism/ syndicalism, rejects the state for building autonomous working class counter-power that can resist, then defeat, state and capital. While each mode has limits, the anarchist/ syndicalist approach is arguably the most convincing, and its implications are serious. And it directs militants to work within the mass movements of the popular classes read full story / add a comment

During the late 1930s, Leon Trotsky and John Dewey, a leading U.S. liberal, wrote essays on the relation of means and ends in politics, and on whether Leninism led to Stalinism. I am going to discuss these works from an anarchist perspective.read full story / add a comment

”May Day should be a symbol of international solidarity – that is of a solidarity that is not
limited to the frame of the national state, which always fits with the interests of the privileged minorities
of that very country. Among the millions of workers who bear the yoke of slavery, there is a unity of
interest, regardless of the language they speak and the standard under which they were born. But between
the exploiters and the exploited of one country, there is a continuous war that cannot be resolved by any
principle of authority and is rooted in the contradictory interests of the various classes. All nationalism is
an ideological disguise of the true facts: it may at one time drag the great masses to its lying
representatives, but it has never been able to abolish the brutal reality of the things of this world” (Rudolf
Rocker, 1936).
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The struggle against the coronavirus pandemic is one that can only be won by an act of unprecedented human solidarity. Through that act the values of a new world can be born. But turning those values into reality requires the working class. Only the working class: global, multi- racial, multicultural and gender diverse, has the potential strength to uproot the power of capital at its source and steer a new course. We can start by defending health and safety for all workers and by fighting for adequate resources for the health care system. We can extend the struggle by defending civil liberties and opposing austerity. And we can culminate it with a revolution to overthrow capitalism and create libertarian communism, worldwide. read full story / add a comment